{"title":"Robert Salmon","description":"\u003cdiv data-shopify-editor-section='{\"id\":\"template--15245822427180__banner\",\"type\":\"main-collection-banner\",\"disabled\":false}' class=\"shopify-section section\" id=\"shopify-section-template--15245822427180__banner\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"collection-hero color-background-1 gradient\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"collection-hero__inner page-width\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"collection-hero__text-wrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"collection-hero__description rte\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRobert Salmon (Scottish American, 1775-1848)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn the Wake of Genius: Exploring Robert Salmon's Maritime World\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eON VIEW NOW: Join us at Arader Galleries, 1016 Madison Avenue, NYC, as we showcase four masterful marine paintings by the renowned artist, Robert Salmon.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Salmon, a luminary in the realm of 19th-century marine artists, possessed a rare talent for capturing the essence of maritime life with unparalleled precision and artistry. Presented here are four of Salmon's masterful marine oil paintings, offering viewers a glimpse into the dynamic interplay of light, color, and movement on the open sea.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom serene harbor scenes to dramatic seascapes, each painting in this collection tells a unique story of adventure and exploration, where every brushstroke speaks volumes about the beauty and majesty of the sea.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat makes this exhibition truly special is the rare opportunity to view such a fine collection of Robert Salmon paintings all in one place. Join us as we celebrate the legacy of Robert Salmon and explore the timeless allure of 19th-century marine art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-shopify-editor-section='{\"id\":\"template--15245822427180__product-grid\",\"type\":\"main-collection-product-grid\",\"disabled\":false}' class=\"shopify-section section\" id=\"shopify-section-template--15245822427180__product-grid\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"section-template--15245822427180__product-grid-padding\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"\"\u003e\n\u003caside data-id=\"template--15245822427180__product-grid\" id=\"main-collection-filters\" class=\"facets-wrapper page-width\" aria-labelledby=\"verticalTitle\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"facets-container\"\u003e\u003cform data-editor-form-attribute=\"\" class=\"facets__form\" id=\"FacetFiltersForm\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"facets__wrapper\" id=\"FacetsWrapperDesktop\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/form\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/aside\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"robert-salmon-scottish-american-1775-1848-a-departing-brig-off-maryport-harbor","title":"Robert Salmon.  A Departing Brig Off Maryport Harbor.","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRobert Salmon (Scottish American, 1775-1848)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eA Departing Brig Off Maryport Harbor\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOil on canvas\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e31 ¼” x  45”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eProvenance: Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts. Private collection, New England.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChristie's, New York, 16 March 1995, lot 16, sold by the above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrivate collection, Newton, Connecticut, acquired from the above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePrivate collection, Palm Beach, Florida.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBarridoff Auctions, Portland, Maine, 6 August 2004, lot 48, sold for $138,000.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eQuester Gallery, Greenwich, Connecticut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAcquired by private collector from above, 2005.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Salmon was both an exceptionally fine artist and one of historical significance in the history of American art. He was only the second professional marine specialist to work in the United States-Thomas Birch, in Philadelphia, preceded him-and the first in New England. Thus, Salmon represents the beginning of a vital artistic tradition which would include Fitz Henry Lane at mid-century, and Winslow Homer in the last decades of the nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike Birch, Salmon was born in England, but unlike the former, whose father, William, was a noted artist in his native land, Thomas Birch developed his art in the new American republic. Salmon was a well-established marine painter in both England and Scotland before he immigrated to the United States in 1828. Thus, he was very much a part of the impressive tradition of marine painting in Great Britain that began as early as 1673 when both Willem Van de Veldes, Senior and Junior, brought the Dutch artistic naval tradition from The Netherlands to England. British and foreign-born artists worked and were well-patronized in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, including such painters as Peter Monamy, Samuel Scott, Nicholas Pocock, Thomas Luny, and Domenic Serres. These artists specialized primarily in two forms of marine art: naval battles and ship portraiture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis tradition continued in Great Britain well into the nineteenth century, inaugurated by Salmon. Unlike those artists, however, Salmon's oeuvre was quite varied. He remains categorized as a \"marine artist,\u003cem\u003e\" \u003c\/em\u003efor ships and water figure in almost all of his paintings. But, while much of his attention was given to ship portraiture, he essayed many other aspects of marine painting-storms at sea, shipwrecks, fleet regattas, and other subjects such as landscapes, usually with a distant view of the sea. Unlike many of the British artists, and also unlike Birch, Salmon was only seldom given to paint naval battles, though he listed as his earliest picture a now-lost \u003cem\u003eBattle of Trafalgar\u003c\/em\u003e, painted in 1806, and immediately after his arrival in the United States he painted and then exhibited, between 1828 and 1830, a series of large, fifteen-foot paintings of the 1816 bombardment of Algiers by an Anglo-Dutch fleet, probably based upon a panorama which he had seen when it had circulated in Great Britain. A further influence upon the nature of Salmon's artistry-shared with the earlier Samuel Scott-was the tight and meticulous strategies of the great Italian artist, Antonio Canaletto, much admired and collected in England, who spent a decade there beginning in 1746. And like Canaletto, though transformed into his own very personal style, Salmon was especially a painter of ports and harbors, fascinated both by the activities he found there, and by the distinctive layout and buildings, distinguishing between each of these cities and towns he depicted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSalmon was born in the port city of Whitehaven in Cumberland, England, and was inspired to his specialty by the environment in which he grew up. Much of his career in Great Britain was spent there and in Liverpool. In 1811 he travelled to work in the ship-building town of Greenock on the west coast of Scotland, moving between there and Liverpool; he was, therefore, both an English and Scottish painter. In 1827 he traveled extensively—he was in London, on the southern coast in Southampton, and then up in the far northwestern city of North Shields at the mouth of the Tyne River, near Newcastle. He left North Shields in May of 1828, and the following month departed on the packet ship, \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNew York \u003c\/em\u003efrom Liverpool, the major port of embarkation for the United States. Arriving in New York, Salmon immediately departed for Boston and appears to have abandoned the more peripatetic life he had led in Great Britain. He was a prolific artist of scenes and subjects similar to those he had painted in his native land. Furthermore, while the majority of his pictures painted in Boston are recognizable American subjects, he also continued to paint or perhaps replicate his British ones--his \u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eShields, England, \u003c\/em\u003ein the collection of the United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, was painted around 1833---- suggesting an appreciation and demand for foreign subjects among his New England clientele. By 1840, it appears that his eyesight had begun to fail and he is thought to have returned to England, but large panoramas of Palermo and Venice are known from 1845 (Fundacion Coleccion, Thyssen-Bornermizsa, Madrid), which exhibit no diminishing of abilities and are, perhaps, even closer to the aesthetics of Canaletto. Otherwise his final years and his date of death remain unknown. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arader Galleries","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43138586345516,"sku":"","price":95000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1156\/7956\/files\/Salmon_ADepartingBrigoffMaryportHarbor_1_1.jpg?v=1713299064"},{"product_id":"robert-salmon-scottish-american-1775-1848-leith-harbor-edinburgh-scotland","title":"Robert Salmon. Leith Harbor [Edinburgh, Scotland]. 1848.","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRobert Salmon (Scottish American, 1775-1848)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eLeith Harbor [Edinburgh, Scotland]\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOil on panel\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e1828\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSigned with monogram and dated lower right: “RS 1828”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSigned, dated, and numbered on reverse: “No. 599\/ Painted by Robert Salmon\/ 1828\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e16 ¼” x 26’ panel, 22 ½” x 32” framed\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eProvenance: Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Jr.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAugustus Thorndike Perkins (son of the preceding).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eCollection of Lawrence Park, acquired from the above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNortheast Auctions, 20 August 2006 Marine \u0026amp; China Trade Auction, lot 1081, sold for $182,000 by the above.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough the manuscript catalogue of his paintings, now in the Boston Public Library, does not mention a working visit to the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, this must have occurred either after, or, more likely just prior, to his stay in North Shields, since the two cities are not too distant; all of Salmon's known British works painted in Northwestern England and in the adjacent area of Scotland are dated to 1827 and 1828. That would account for a number of paintings in the vicinity of Edinburgh, including the present work, \u003cem\u003eLeith Harbour, \u003c\/em\u003edated to 1828, his last year in Great Britain; Leith is the harbor city for Edinburgh, incorporated as of 1920 into the Scottish capital. Salmon must have brought \u003cem\u003eLeith Harbour \u003c\/em\u003ewith him to America, for it is, in all likelihood, the \u003cem\u003eView of Leith \u003c\/em\u003ewhich he exhibited for sale in 1829 at the Boston Athenaeum (#197), the principal venue for art exhibitions in Boston, having begun its annual shows only two years earlier. Even more significantly, this is almost surely the picture shown at the Athenaeum again the following year, 1830 (#91), now owned by Thomas Handasyd Perkins, Jr., the son and namesake of the most important art collector in Boston in the early decades of the 1800s. Perkins, Jr. was an important collector in his own right. Salmon had begun to attract favorable attention immediately on his arrival in Boston in 1828, exhibiting eleven pictures at the Athenaeum in 1829 and eight in 1830. His two competitors among the land- and seascapists in Boston at the time were Alvan Fisher and Thomas Doughty, but the reviewer for the \u003cem\u003eNorth American Review \u003c\/em\u003ein 1830, reviewing the Athenaeum annual, noted that: \"The works of Salmon have a more decidedly characteristic manner than those of Doughty or Fisher, and are, we believe, in general, greater favorites with the public.\" Salmon's manuscript catalogue lists at least six more paintings sold to the Perkins-father or son. And, in 1835, he replicated his \u003cem\u003eLeith Harbour, \u003c\/em\u003e(now in the Mariner's Museum in Newport News, Virginia), which he sold in a large auction of his pictures held on May 22 in Corinthian Hall, Boston.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBy singularly good fortune, a letter dated June 7, 1881, is appended to Salmon's manuscript catalogue of paintings, written by Augustus Thorndike Perkins, the son and heir to the first owner of \u003cem\u003eLeith Harbour \u003c\/em\u003eto William Henry Whitmore, the earliest antiquarian to investigate the early arts in Boston and New England. Whitmore had been inquiring about Robert Salmon, and Perkins responded with descriptions of the four paintings by the artist in his collection. He wrote: \"The second picture is an English land locked Bay with a light house on left a large Dutch Ship, stern on, near the land; in the center an English Cutter under jib and mainsail, close halled [sic], coming in....The picture is 2 ft. 2 in by 1 ft 5 in wide.\" Thus, by 1881, the painting had remained in the prestigious Perkins family, though the specific identity of the location had been forgotten. However, in keeping with Salmon's concern for veracity and distinct characteristics, he here defined Leith and its activities as a major, active port. The \"light house\" at the left is actually the Signal Tower. This was a defining structure at the inner entrance to the harbor, a circular tower at the end of The Shore, originally a windmill built in 1686 by Robert Mylne, to extract oil from rape-seed. Its sails and domed roof was replaced by battlements in 1805, obviously before Salmon painted it so distinctively.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven the small, sloped-roof structure with a chimney beside the tower, the first structure on The Shore road, is accurately shown. In the far distance, behind the English Cutter, is a long horizontal building, most probably the monumental Custom House, at the end of the docks of Leith, built in neoclassic style in 1812 by Robert Reid. (Alternatively, the structure may be the Exchange Buildings, built by Thomas Brown in neoclassic style in 1809; both are on Constitution Street in Leith). On one side or another of that building is the Water of Leith, the twenty-four mile long river that passes through Edinburgh.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSalmon, in this exceptionally fine example of his very individual approach to marine art, exploits to the fullest four of his major concerns and achievements. First, he is a marine painter, and he emphasizes not only the contrast of the two ships-the full-sail English cutter and the smaller Dutch ship dockside, but the harbor is filled with a variety of other sailing vessels, to offer a full panoply of ships, large and small. Secondly, he emphasizes the activities and purposes of this lively port, receptive to foreign as well as domestic shipping, figures on boats and ships, and those on docks, some of whom are almost certainly involved in shipping activity. Thirdly, he defines the specific nature of this port city, Leith, in particular, with its identifiable buildings, the row of houses along The Shore, the configuration of the waterway and bridges. And finally, he is able to dramatize the scene with his unique aesthetic powers-the strong deep tones of grey-green and gray-blue, enlivened by the near-white sails and the touches of red in the flags. This chromatic combination is Salmon's own, along with his command of dramatic chiaroscuro. Salmon imparts upon the scene an impressive treatment of strong light within a darkening environment, so that a series of parallel planes of light and dark on both water and shore carry the viewer back into space. The whole is illuminated with a separate light in the sky-not rich blues with puffy white clouds--but an oval glow, fading into grey at the upper corners, which cast the ships in majestic silhouette.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Salmon was both an exceptionally fine artist and one of historical significance in the history of American art. He was only the second professional marine specialist to work in the United States-Thomas Birch, in Philadelphia, preceded him-and the first in New England. Thus, Salmon represents the beginning of a vital artistic tradition which would include Fitz Henry Lane at mid-century, and Winslow Homer in the last decades of the nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike Birch, Salmon was born in England, but unlike the former, whose father, William, was a noted artist in his native land, Thomas Birch developed his art in the new American republic. Salmon was a well-established marine painter in both England and Scotland before he immigrated to the United States in 1828. Thus, he was very much a part of the impressive tradition of marine painting in Great Britain that began as early as 1673 when both Willem Van de Veldes, Senior and Junior, brought the Dutch artistic naval tradition from The Netherlands to England. British and foreign-born artists worked and were well-patronized in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, including such painters as Peter Monamy, Samuel Scott, Nicholas Pocock, Thomas Luny, and Domenic Serres. These artists specialized primarily in two forms of marine art: naval battles and ship portraiture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis tradition continued in Great Britain well into the nineteenth century, inaugurated by Salmon. Unlike those artists, however, Salmon's oeuvre was quite varied. He remains categorized as a \"marine artist,\u003cem\u003e\" \u003c\/em\u003efor ships and water figure in almost all of his paintings. But, while much of his attention was given to ship portraiture, he essayed many other aspects of marine painting-storms at sea, shipwrecks, fleet regattas, and other subjects such as landscapes, usually with a distant view of the sea. Unlike many of the British artists, and also unlike Birch, Salmon was only seldom given to paint naval battles, though he listed as his earliest picture a now-lost \u003cem\u003eBattle of Trafalgar\u003c\/em\u003e, painted in 1806, and immediately after his arrival in the United States he painted and then exhibited, between 1828 and 1830, a series of large, fifteen-foot paintings of the 1816 bombardment of Algiers by an Anglo-Dutch fleet, probably based upon a panorama which he had seen when it had circulated in Great Britain. A further influence upon the nature of Salmon's artistry-shared with the earlier Samuel Scott-was the tight and meticulous strategies of the great Italian artist, Antonio Canaletto, much admired and collected in England, who spent a decade there beginning in 1746. And like Canaletto, though transformed into his own very personal style, Salmon was especially a painter of ports and harbors, fascinated both by the activities he found there, and by the distinctive layout and buildings, distinguishing between each of these cities and towns he depicted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSalmon was born in the port city of Whitehaven in Cumberland, England, and was inspired to his specialty by the environment in which he grew up. Much of his career in Great Britain was spent there and in Liverpool. In 1811 he travelled to work in the ship-building town of Greenock on the west coast of Scotland, moving between there and Liverpool; he was, therefore, both an English and Scottish painter. In 1827 he traveled extensively—he was in London, on the southern coast in Southampton, and then up in the far northwestern city of North Shields at the mouth of the Tyne River, near Newcastle. He left North Shields in May of 1828, and the following month departed on the packet ship, \u003cem\u003eNew York \u003c\/em\u003efrom Liverpool, the major port of embarkation for the United States. Arriving in New York, Salmon immediately departed for Boston and appears to have abandoned the more peripatetic life he had led in Great Britain. He was a prolific artist of scenes and subjects similar to those he had painted in his native land. Furthermore, while the majority of his pictures painted in Boston are recognizable American subjects, he also continued to paint or perhaps replicate his British ones--his \u003cem\u003eShields, England, \u003c\/em\u003ein the collection of the United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, was painted around 1833---- suggesting an appreciation and demand for foreign subjects among his New England clientele. By 1840, it appears that his eyesight had begun to fail and he is thought to have returned to England, but large panoramas of Palermo and Venice are known from 1845 (Fundacion Coleccion, Thyssen-Bornermizsa, Madrid), which exhibit no diminishing of abilities and are, perhaps, even closer to the aesthetics of Canaletto. Otherwise his final years and his date of death remain unknown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arader Galleries","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43138594013228,"sku":"","price":140000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1156\/7956\/files\/Salmon_LeithHarborEdinburghScotland_1_1.jpg?v=1713299206"},{"product_id":"robert-salmon-scottish-american-1775-1848-the-ship-liverpool-in-the-mercey-seen-from-wallasey-1810","title":"Robert Salmon. The Ship Liverpool in the Mercey, seen from Wallasey. 1810.","description":"\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cstrong data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRobert Salmon (Scottish American, 1775-1848)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Ship Liverpool in the Mercey, seen from Wallasey\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOil on canvas\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e1810\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSigned with initials and dated lower right: “RS 1810”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e31 ¼” x 42 ¼” canvas, 37” x 47 ¾” framed\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eAuction history: Phillips London, 19th Century British and European Paintings sale, 3 April 2001, Lot 26, sold for $40,149\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eChristie’s New York, Maritime sale, 3 February 2005, lot 199, sold for $132,000\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike a number of both Salmon's British and American subjects, \u003cem\u003eThe Ship Liverpool in the Mercey, seen from Wallasey\u003c\/em\u003e, offers a fascinating combination of genre and cityscape as well as a marine view. In the foreground, center, a few men appear to be lowering the mast on a small vessel and walking on to the beach, while a larger Dutch ship, identified by the flag, is at the right, and in the middle distance is a British ship in full sail in the harbor. Unusual for the artist, Salmon identifies the vessel as the \"Liverpool,\" its name delineated across its stern. This was a six-year old ship built in Philadelphia, and voyaging between that city and Liverpool. In the distance is the shoreline of Liverpool, then nearing by 1810, a population of 100,000. Salmon endows his picture with the accuracy of the identifiable buildings in the distance, along with the vigorousness of the lapping waves, the strong gray cloud formations contrasting with the bright blue sky, and the billowing sails of the British ship.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWallasey, from which Salmon has chosen to paint, is situated at the northeastern corner of the Wirral peninsula. It had been sparsely populated until the beginning of the nineteenth century, and had been known as a base for smuggling. But about the time this work was painted, Liverpool merchants and ship captains were just beginning to build homes in the area. Meanwhile, it was an ideal spot from which to survey the mouth of the Mersey River, with the ships for fishing, commerce, and naval activities, along with the panoramic shoreline of Liverpool beyond. Salmon's accuracy in delineation is not confined to his intimate knowledge of ship construction and rigging. His panorama of the distant port of Liverpool is amazingly accurate. On the left of Liverpool is seen the Townsend windmill, its arms turned to face the southerly wind. The dome on the skyline to the right of the ship is that of St. Paul's; then that of the Town Hall, followed by the spire of St. George's. Just to the left of the ferry's mizzen mast is the spire of St. Nicholas (the spire collapsed in 1810, the year of the painting; its replacement in 1814 having a more sophisticated \"lantern\" design)..\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Ship Liverpool in the Mercey, seen from Wallasey \u003c\/em\u003ewould seem to be one of Salmon's most admired and successful paintings. It would appear that he painted the subject at least three times, with only slight variations. The earliest was painted in 1801 (sold at Christie's on December 3, 1908) with the ships having different flag identifications, the figural arrangements are slightly different, and Salmon displays a less exacting rendition of the Liverpool skyline. This also belies Salmon's own statement that he painted his first work only in 1806, since, in fact, other pictures created in the first years of the century are also known; Salmon's earliest dated painting was created in 1800 and he began exhibiting his work in 1802.. On the 21st of March, 2002, a much later version, painted in 1825 was sold at Phillip, de Pury and Company, with very different ships-one flying the Swedish flag, and the water painted closer to the scallop-like waves which were regularly used once Salmon settled in Boston three years later. And the basic format of this painting reappears in one of his last Boston pictures, Liverpool, \u003cem\u003eMercy River, \u003c\/em\u003epainted in 1840, in the collection of the Peabody-Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, though there is far more traffic on the Mersey River, and the primary ship (British) is seen port side, parallel to the picture plane.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRobert Salmon was both an exceptionally fine artist and one of historical significance in the history of American art. He was only the second professional marine specialist to work in the United States-Thomas Birch, in Philadelphia, preceded him-and the first in New England. Thus, Salmon represents the beginning of a vital artistic tradition which would include Fitz Henry Lane at mid-century, and Winslow Homer in the last decades of the nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLike Birch, Salmon was born in England, but unlike the former, whose father, William, was a noted artist in his native land, Thomas Birch developed his art in the new American republic. Salmon was a well-established marine painter in both England and Scotland before he immigrated to the United States in 1828. Thus, he was very much a part of the impressive tradition of marine painting in Great Britain that began as early as 1673 when both Willem Van de Veldes, Senior and Junior, brought the Dutch artistic naval tradition from The Netherlands to England. British and foreign-born artists worked and were well-patronized in Great Britain in the eighteenth century, including such painters as Peter Monamy, Samuel Scott, Nicholas Pocock, Thomas Luny, and Domenic Serres. These artists specialized primarily in two forms of marine art: naval battles and ship portraiture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis tradition continued in Great Britain well into the nineteenth century, inaugurated by Salmon. Unlike those artists, however, Salmon's oeuvre was quite varied. He remains categorized as a \"marine artist,\u003cem\u003e\" \u003c\/em\u003efor ships and water figure in almost all of his paintings. But, while much of his attention was given to ship portraiture, he essayed many other aspects of marine painting-storms at sea, shipwrecks, fleet regattas, and other subjects such as landscapes, usually with a distant view of the sea. Unlike many of the British artists, and also unlike Birch, Salmon was only seldom given to paint naval battles, though he listed as his earliest picture a now-lost \u003cem\u003eBattle of Trafalgar\u003c\/em\u003e, painted in 1806, and immediately after his arrival in the United States he painted and then exhibited, between 1828 and 1830, a series of large, fifteen-foot paintings of the 1816 bombardment of Algiers by an Anglo-Dutch fleet, probably based upon a panorama which he had seen when it had circulated in Great Britain. A further influence upon the nature of Salmon's artistry-shared with the earlier Samuel Scott-was the tight and meticulous strategies of the great Italian artist, Antonio Canaletto, much admired and collected in England, who spent a decade there beginning in 1746. And like Canaletto, though transformed into his own very personal style, Salmon was especially a painter of ports and harbors, fascinated both by the activities he found there, and by the distinctive layout and buildings, distinguishing between each of these cities and towns he depicted.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSalmon was born in the port city of Whitehaven in Cumberland, England, and was inspired to his specialty by the environment in which he grew up. Much of his career in Great Britain was spent there and in Liverpool. In 1811 he travelled to work in the ship-building town of Greenock on the west coast of Scotland, moving between there and Liverpool; he was, therefore, both an English and Scottish painter. In 1827 he traveled extensively—he was in London, on the southern coast in Southampton, and then up in the far northwestern city of North Shields at the mouth of the Tyne River, near Newcastle. He left North Shields in May of 1828, and the following month departed on the packet ship, \u003cem\u003eNew York \u003c\/em\u003efrom Liverpool, the major port of embarkation for the United States. Arriving in New York, Salmon immediately departed for Boston and appears to have abandoned the more peripatetic life he had led in Great Britain. He was a prolific artist of scenes and subjects similar to those he had painted in his native land. Furthermore, while the majority of his pictures painted in Boston are recognizable American subjects, he also continued to paint or perhaps replicate his British ones--his \u003cem\u003eShields, England, \u003c\/em\u003ein the collection of the United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, was painted around 1833---- suggesting an appreciation and demand for foreign subjects among his New England clientele. By 1840, it appears that his eyesight had begun to fail and he is thought to have returned to England, but large panoramas of Palermo and Venice are known from 1845 (Fundacion Coleccion, Thyssen-Bornermizsa, Madrid), which exhibit no diminishing of abilities and are, perhaps, even closer to the aesthetics of Canaletto. Otherwise his final years and his date of death remain unknown.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arader Galleries","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43138605973548,"sku":"","price":175000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1156\/7956\/files\/Salmon_TheShipLiverpoolintheMercey_seenfromWallasey_1_1.jpg?v=1713299474"}],"url":"https:\/\/aradernyc.com\/collections\/robert-salmon.oembed","provider":"Arader Galleries","version":"1.0","type":"link"}